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TECHTop 10 Emerging Technologies of 2015From autonomous drones to emergent AI to digital genomes, this year’s list from the World Economic Forum offers its latest glimpse of our fast-approaching technological futureBy?Bernard Meyerson?on March 4, 2015?4Fuel-cell vehicles have long promised several major advantages over those powered by electricity or hydrocarbons.Credit:?Masaru Kamikura/FlickrSA Forum?is an invited essay from experts on topical issues in science and technology.Editors note: Today the?World Economic Forums Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies, one of the organizations networks of expert communities that form the Global Agenda Councils, released its?Top 10 List of Emerging Technologies for 2015.?Bernard Meyerson, chief innovation officer of IBM and author of the following essay, is chair of the Meta-Council. Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina is serving as vice-chair.?Technology is perhaps the greatest agent of change in the modern world. Although never without risk, technological breakthroughs promise solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time. From zero-emission cars fueled by hydrogen to computer chips modeled on the human brain, this year’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies list—an annual compilation from the World Economic Forum (WEF)—offers a vivid glimpse of the power of innovation to improve lives, transform industries and safeguard our planet.To compile this list the WEF’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies, a panel of 18 experts, draws on the collective expertise of the Forum’s numerous communities to identify the most important technological trends. In doing so, the Meta-Council aims to raise awareness of their potential and contribute to closing the gaps in investment, regulation and public understanding that so often thwart progress.1.?Fuel-cell vehiclesZero-emission cars that run on hydrogenFuel-cell vehicles have long promised several major advantages over those powered by electricity or hydrocarbo